So as a comment to this on a DL flight this week the pilot came on and said verbatim “folks the auxiliary power unit on this flight is broken. It’s sole purpose is for us to getting power going faster as such we are starting the engines at the gate today”
would i I have noticed this? Probably not but the fact he did not treat us like children was quite nice and apparently was not afraid people would complain about broken equipment. He didn’t have to give us a full lesson but took 10 seconds which whether he knows it or not was really nice to do.